Abstract:

Some policy makers currently observe that, in spite of exposing more individuals to entrepreneurship, it does not always result in higher overall entrepreneurial activity. Evidence suggests that policies and educational entrepreneurial interventions may work differently across demographics, necessitating tailored approaches for varying ages, developmental stages, or genders. Focusing on the last aspect, entrepreneurship has been widely acknowledged as a gendered process across the literature. Thus, given higher education's role as a bridge to the labour market, a gender-sensitive approach to higher entrepreneurial education is essential. Building on this, and through a gendered lens, the current study provides an updated snapshot on gender related variables associated with entrepreneurship education, drawing from a comprehensive sample of university students studying at one the most significant and thriving business hubs in the Mediterranean region, EDEM-Business School. To do so, we obtained information of the grades, entrepreneurial intentions and membership of an extra-curricular entrepreneurship club from 10,500 students of this institution over four complete academic years (18/19-21/22), which equates to 1,320 ECTS.

Our results show that female students outperform male students, specifically in business-related subjects, where this difference is twice as pronounced when compared to non-business subjects. Moreover, the percentage of female student members that belonged to such entrepreneurship club was 32,6%, similar to the general sample of the students studying at EDEM (35%). Consequently, given their higher grades, especially in business subjects, and their reasonable contextualized rate of entry into the entrepreneurial club, there is evidence to suggest that female students at EDEM are perfectly capable to initiate and manage their own projects. Unfortunately, this scenario changes when shifting our focus to the actual implementation of entrepreneurial ideas. Only 10% of the participants in the over 1,300 projects launched in Lanzadera, the business accelerator of the combined 'Marina de Empresas' project to which EDEM belongs to, are women. This points to a gender-based gap between entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial activity.

Potential reasoning behind such paradox in female entrepreneurship can be related to traditional socialised gender roles and their involuntary (but effective) involvement during formal and informal education concerning entrepreneurship, through what is understood in the literature as social constructivist learning theory. On one hand, such internalization could potentially result in the establishment of elevated self-imposed standards or imposter fears concerning their own entrepreneurial capabilities in female entrepreneurs. On the other hand, this internalization of social gender roles could also be related to different pathways that females and males may have towards specific entrepreneurial intention types. Regarding this aspect, this study found that female students at EDEM hold significantly higher preferences towards social and lifestyle projects, while males lean more towards those that are growth-oriented. In this regard, the present work tries to help policy makers and entrepreneurial educators in designing more effective entrepreneurial programs, and in so doing, helping them to better tailor provision to the particular characteristics of participants.

Keywords:

Female entrepreneurship, socialised roles, intention types, tailor approach.